(The following article by Drew Smith was posted on the Charleston Daily Mail website on June 14.)
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — When it comes to the railroad industry, the time-honored steam engine steals all the historic attention. Everyone knows the caboose is cute. A bullet train will rattle your brain with its rocket-like speed.
But, as with most successful operations, there is always dirty work to be done.
That’s where rail grinders come in. They are the trains that do the railroad’s grunt work.
“They’re kind of the unsung heroes of the railroads,” said Richard Andre, a local historian and member of the Kanawha Valley Railroad Club.
Trains put the tracks through stress and strain, and the grinders come along and “true up” the rails, Andre said.
The grinders, special trains built for maintenance, are meant to improve aging rails, control deterioration and extend rail life.
All railroads in the U.S. are grinded. The grinders do their work by taking 1/1,000 inch of metal off the top of each rail with close to 100 grinding stones. A typical West Virginia rail will be grinded once a year on straight tracks and about four times a year on curves.
“Over time, trains beat up the top of the rail and our running grinders extend the life of the rail up to 10 times,” said Don Cherrey, chief financial officer at Loram Maintenance of Way Inc., one of the country’s leading railroad grinders.
“If railroads aren’t grinded, the weight of the train will eventually cause small cracks in the rail, which will grow until the rail will break completely,” he said.
Loram, a Minnesota based company, does much of the preventative maintenance on tracks around the Tri-State, including West Virginia and the Kanawha Valley.
As the grinder rumbles down the tracks, it creates friction and a large amount of sparks from the rails.
“It lights up like a fireworks show,” Cherrey said. “But it can be dangerous too.”
So the grinders carry water cars behind them. The water is mixed with soap and is sprayed on the wooden ties to prevent them from burning. They are able to spray the water 500 feet in both directions in case the sparks catch the grass on fire.
“It is not the safest environment in the world,” said Sam Madsen, an employee of Loram who lives in Hamel, Minn. “Anytime you’re working around trains, there’s going to be danger.”
Potential grinder employees go through drug testing and extensive training before they’re allowed to work on the railroads.
The hours of a grinder are much like those of someone who works on an oilrig. But Madsen said he loves his work.
“We spend six weeks out working and two weeks at home,” Madsen said. “I love it because it’s a great way to get out and see North America.”